Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig announced the next phase today of the program that uses conservation practices upstream to improve water quality from the drinking water sources for thousands of central Iowans.
Naig says the Cattle and Conservation Working Lands Program is expanding into 22 counties in the Greater Des Moines Watershed. “The highest and best use of an acre of farm ground in the state of Iowa can be in grass raising cattle,” Naig says. The Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship (IDALS) says the cost-share program supports cattle and other livestock producers in converting under-performing or highly erodible acres of row crops into pasture and hay ground – providing land and forage to support the growth of the U.S. beef herd, while reducing soil erosion and improving water quality.
Naig says the state is allocating $1.5 million to the program over the next five years. “This balances productivity with the environmental outcomes we want to see and helps us achieve that growth in the cattle industry,” Naig says.
Greene County cattle producer Bill Fields says his area is now eligible for the cost-share. “In our area we’re pretty flat anyway,” Fields says. “I think more of your pastures are going to be along creeks and rougher ground, but good ground makes good hay. So the hay part of the this is probably going to be regular flat, black, and tiled ground.”
The program will now be available in Audubon, Boone, Buena Vista, Calhoun, Clay, Dallas, Dickinson, Emmet, Greene, Hamilton, Hancock, Humboldt, Kossuth, Palo Alto, Pocahontas, Polk, Sac, Webster, Winnebago and Wright counties. The Ag Department says says the cost structure is set up at $290 an acre for converting cropped acres to hay and $1,000 an acre for converting cropped acres to pasture. Producers can apply by contacting their local U.S.D.A. Farm Service Agency office or visit costshare.iowaagriculture.gov.
Naig says he hopes the program, which began as a pilot project in Taylor County in 2016, can become a model for reforming the federal Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). It’s also available in Adams, Carroll, Cherokee, Guthrie, Ida, Page and Woodbury counties.
